44: January 6, 2008 - January 12, 2008

The presidential campaign has moved on from New Hampshire, but it has left behind it deep fissures and feelings of resentment among local Democrats that some fear may linger all the way until November.--Alec MacGillis

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are continuing their efforts to turn the burst of momentum each gained out of their respective early contest victories into cash. Media experts estimate it could cost $40 million to wage even a targeted television ad campaign in the nearly two dozen states with Feb. 5 primaries, and so both candidates are shifting into overdrive to raise the needed funds. --Matthew Mosk

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, one of the most prominent female elected officials in the country, announced this morning her endorsement of Barack Obama's presidential candidacy. --Dan Balz and Shailagh Murray

Top advisers to former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani have voluntarily agreed to forgo their salaries or consultant fees, an indication that Giuliani's strategy of sitting out the early primaries is causing fundraising problems for the campaign.--Michael D. Shear

As the presidential candidates tumble all over each other offering economic plans, the two contenders who have offered populist messages aimed at the economically dislocated have not gotten as much traction as they might have expected.--Peter Baker

While former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is counting on his home state of Michigan to deliver him a key primary win next week, he faces fierce competition from both the left and the right in the form of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. --Juliet Eilperin

Since nearly eight in 10 white evangelicals voted for President Bush in 2004, Democrats have been plowing thought, money and time into changing the story line. They have faith advisers, faith forums and faith strategies that show there is such a thing as a progressive evangelical. So imagine their annoyance when exit polls in Iowa and New Hampshire asked only Republican voters if they consider themselves "born-again" or evangelical. --Michelle Boorstein and Jon Cohen

With the Nevada caucus nine days away, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton decided to make a quick campaign stop today in Las Vegas as a sign of her intention to make some showing in "Sin City", the epicenter of the next pivotal stage in her fight to win the Democratic nomination. It's unclear how much of a welcome wagon she'll be receiving. --Paul Kane

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has been far back in the pack in the first two contests of the 2008 Democratic campaign, will end his candidacy today, according to two sources close to the campaign, but will not now endorse any of the other candidates still in the race.--Dan Balz

Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee in 2004, will endorse Sen. Barack Obama this morning in Charleston, S.C.
The nod is a setback for John Edwards, Kerry's vice-presidential pick in 2004, who is trying to keep his campaign alive after two early losses. --Shailagh Murray

Sources close to his campaign said Wednesday that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has decided to end his campaign for the presidency after a meeting with top advisers and that he will formally announce the decision Thursday in Santa Fe. --Garance Franke-Ruta

With dance music pumping from the speakers and high-schoolers screaming, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told a group of supporters at a rally here that he would work to protect America from overseas threats even as he would boost the economy. --Juliet Eilperin

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, one of Barack Obama's national co-chairmen, said yesterday that Obama's loss in New Hampshire means the contest for the nomination may be decided Feb. 12 in Virginia. --Tim Craig

Hillary Clinton's fundraising team raised more money than Democratic rival Barack Obama in the final three months of 2007, staking claim to the biggest fundraiser in the presidential race for the second straight quarter. --John Solomon

Sen. Barack Obama raised $23.5 million during the last three months of 2007, and raised another $8 million in the first eight days of 2008, according to a campaign memo released this morning. --Matthew Mosk

Fresh off his New Hampshire victory, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) shifted gears and emphasized an economic message this morning as he prepared to greet Michigan voters in the run up to next week's primary.--Juliet Eilperin

The first week of the new year threatened to write an unofficial end to the Bush-Clinton era of American politics and make a 46-year-old African American with the briefest of political biographies the man with the best opportunity to write the next chapter of political history. But by the narrowest of margins, Hillary Rodham Clinton turned back Barack Obama's bid to follow his Iowa caucus victory five days ago with what could have been a decisive win in the New Hampshire primary. As a result, both parties face further uncertainty about the identity of their eventual nominees. --David S. Broder

An official Washington that only days ago was swept up in Barack Obama mania tonight began grappling with a Democratic primary fight that is looking like a long, extended battle between the Obama phenomenon and a slow, steady and strong Hillary Rodham Clinton.--Jonathan Weisman and Paul Kane

After a grueling, depressing five-day stretch since losing Iowa, the Clinton campaign on Monday night exuded its first rays of optimism since leaving Iowa, as early election returns showed an extremely close Democratic race. --Anne E. Kornblut

Arizona Sen. John McCain claimed victory in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night by embracing the joy of an unexpected comeback and declaring his intention to bring his brand of straight talk to the White House.--Michael D. Shear

Near the bottom in New Hampshire's primary results and strapped for cash, Republican Fred Thompson's campaign is cutting staff salaries to free up resources for a last-ditch effort to revitalize his White House bid in South Carolina. The decision means Thompson will mostly forgo the next primary, scheduled in Michigan, on which rivals John McCain and Mitt Romney are already setting their sites. --John Solomon

As the New Hampshire primary contest vote totals are counted later tonight and reports of high turnout continue to pour in, previous turnout figures in New Hampshire provide an interesting point of comparison. --Alice R. Crites

The predictions for a big turnout in New Hampshire's primary -- especially on the Democratic side -- were materializing this afternoon as numerous town clerks began running low on ballots and summoned more forms from state election officials. The Secretary of State's office said it received a large number of calls for extra Democratic ballots during the day but that no locations had run out. --John Solomon

Hoping to fend off the kind of campaign loss they suffered in 2000, advisers to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have formed a "Truth Squad" to counter any sort of negative attacks they may face in South Carolina, which could determine McCain's shot at the GOP presidential nomination.--Juliet Eilperin

Barack Obama closed out his New Hampshire campaign late Monday the way he began it early Friday, with a display of energy, jubilation and powerful rhetoric that captured what could be a profoundly important transitional moment in Democratic politics and perhaps the politics of the country.--Dan Balz

It was a rough start for Gene and JoAnne Godfrey, 74 and 73, respectively. The frail couple desperately wanted to cast their ballots for John McCain this morning at one of the largest and busiest voting stations, but they were forced to trudge through a snow drift by an unlikely culprit: McCain's own campaign entourage. --Lois Romano

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has made a big deal about the fact that his campaign doesn't accept political donations from Washington lobbyists, and recently declared that "they won't run my White House, and they won't set the agenda in Washington." But that ban doesn't extend to seeking their endorsements, or their advice.--John Solomon

During an "Ask Mitt Anything" forum at the Derry-Salem Elks Club here, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney demurred when an audience member asked him whether he would hold up reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act on the grounds that it kept men from visiting their children. "I'm not familiar with the Act," Romney replied. --Juliet Eilperin

Clinton won this scrappy corner of New Hampshire convincingly 16 years ago. But today, his popularity seemed a bit more tenuous. He showed up 90 minutes late and was greeted by a crowd of about 200 people who filled about half the available seats. A baby wailed during the first 10 minutes of his remarks, and local television crews packed up early, unable to shift their schedules to Clinton time. The former president was in a serious mood. "You can pick the president you want," he told the crowd. "But you can't be unaware that you are making a real choice here," he said. He described a political landscape that to him made little sense. --Shailagh Murray

Barack Obama is being joined on the campaign trail today in New Hampshire by Bill Bradley. The endorsement by the former New Jersey senator may verge on the superfluous for Obama, who with one day until the primary is now leading Hillary Clinton in the polls here and doing particularly well among the kind of independent voters who took a liking to Bradley in his 2000 challenge of Al Gore. Yet the pairing of the two men on the cusp of what may well be another big victory for Obama offers a moment of vindication for the many Obama supporters here who also backed Bradley in 2000. --Alec MacGillis

If there were any doubt that the presidential campaign has become a grueling -- and personal -- experience for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, she laid it to rest on Monday in a choked-up moment, captured on videotape, in a diner in Portsmouth. --Anne E. Kornblut

If you wanted a measure of how discombobulated Hillary Clinton's campaign has been since Iowa, look no farther than to the memo sent out by chief strategist Mark Penn shortly before the Democratic debate on Saturday night.--Dan Balz

When Sen. Barack Obama arrived at the opera house in downtown Lebanon this morning, 750 people were waiting inside -- and another 500 had gathered around the entrance, hoping to catch a glimpse. Obama did them one better, in a scene as vivid as any that Hollywood could produce. --Shailagh Murray

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) has jumped to a double-digit lead in New Hampshire with two days to go, neutralizing New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's onetime advantage among female voters, according to two state polls released today. --Jon Cohen

Jim Demers, a New Hampshire lobbyist and political strategist who is co-chairing Barack Obama's campaign here, was invoked by Hillary Clinton in last night's debate as undermining Obama's claim that he's running a campaign free of special interest influence. "When it comes to lobbyists, Senator Obama's chair in New Hampshire is a lobbyist. He lobbies for the drug companies," Clinton said. Alec MacGillis

Romney's high command may be right or wrong about Obama's prospects in N.H., but there is no question that they are all rooting for a big Obama victory over Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. The better Obama does, they believe, the more independents votes he will deny John McCain, the current GOP front-runner in New Hampshire. The fewer independents who vote in the Republican primary, the better Romney will do. --Dan Balz

Former Sen. John Edwards has a surprise visitor on the campaign trail today: Hilda Sarkisyan, the mother of Nataline Sarkisyan, the 17-year-old Los Angeles girl whose death last month became a national news story because her insurance company had initially denied a liver transplant. --Shailagh Murray